


Forever Running

by Oaklin



Series: Forever Everything [74]
Category: Chikara (Professional Wrestling), Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: (no one is surprised by this), Angst, Foreshadowing, Juxtaposition, Kayfabe Compliant, M/M, Parallels, Swearing, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unhealthy Relationships, bby!Steen is still a mess, past echoing the future, stealth angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-14 19:12:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13014327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oaklin/pseuds/Oaklin
Summary: Team IWS' last match in the Chikara Tag World Grand Prix does not go as planned.





	Forever Running

**Author's Note:**

> Hello hello!
> 
> Hope everyone had a good week, and good holidays. I dunno how the next few weeks are gonna go, so bear (heh) with me. I may or may not get the next few up on time, and if there is a skip in weeks, don't panic or anything, that just means I got really busy with irl bullshit and didn't get the opportunity to post. I'm not going anywhere ^.^

Kevin sighs into the confused murmuring of the crowd, listening to them bicker as he lays prone on the floor. He shifts around finally, glancing up as those assholes exit the ring.

“Well then. That was fucking dramatic.”

Kevin levers himself up onto his ass, glaring at Hero, Cannon, and Castagnoli’s retreating backs. They are jeering, and high-fiving and carrying on like the losers that they are, completely ignoring him. Kevin contemplates walking up behind them and reminding them why he is best not disregarded, but thinks better of it after a minute and instead returns the favor, meeting their indifference with indifference of his own.

Pulling himself up off the thinly-padded concrete, he casts his eyes around, glancing over the pathetic, fallen form of Quackenbush, dismissing the vague thoughts about rousing the fool almost immediately.

(forget him)

_-no time for that shit anyway-_

_-just find **him** and lets fuck off-_

Grinding his teeth together at his own failings, Kevin staggers over to the motionless figure splayed across the shitty guardrail, his sparkly blue tights snagged on the flimsy metal. Kevin lays a hand on pasty skin, running his fingers over the groves and freckles, watching the expansion of the idiot’s rib cage, and letting out a breath that he hadn’t known he had been holding.

Not that-

(shit)

_-soft-_

( _ **he** _ is…)

**_-everything?-_ **

**Nothing.**

(nothing at _all_ )

_-neither are **you** -_

True.

“Moron. Wake up, we need to get the hell out of here before the dweeb patrol decides to come back for seconds.”

Almost as soon as the quip leaves his mouth, the crowd makes a long, low, ‘ooh’-ing sound, alerting him to more goddamn shenanigans. Kevin glances over his shoulder, drawing in an exasperated breath as he catches sight of Hero and his dumb new friends, poised by the curtain, looking thoughtfully at the ring and whispering to each other.

Damnit.

The ginger fool finally rouses a bit, looking around in confusion. Kevin watches for a heartbeat, eyes following the way the idiot’s thoughts try to catch up with the moment. They don’t have time for this though, and Kevin knows first hand how glacially slow a certain pasty dumbass can be on the uptake, so Kevin cuts through the painfully disoriented mindfuck his tag partner is currently expieriencing.

“Come on. You can work out what exactly happened here later. I know this whole ‘thinking’ thing is rough for you. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

As Kevin speaks, he hoists the scrawny bag of bones up, wondering why he is even bothering, considering that this is all **_his_ ** fault anyway.

_-bullshit-_

_-Hero’s fault-_

(pretty sure it’s _**his**_ fault too)

(somehow)

_-exactly how, then?-_

(...I’ll think of _something_ )

**_-dumbass-_ **

The fool goes without complaint, managing to stay on his feet when Kevin sets him upright. He follows quietly after Kevin as they abandon Quackenbush to getting his ass stomped. Kevin reaches back to tug the moron along, when the eyes under The Lie stray backwards, a look on that freckled face that tells Kevin all he needs to know.

“You don’t need to help his dumbass. He got himself involved with Hero. What happens to him because of that bad decision is his own fucking fault,” Kevin says with more bite than he really meant. Generico turns away from the beat down that is happening, casting a look at Kevin, **_those eyes_** full of an uncertainty that leaves Kevin breathless for so long that he starts to become genuinely concerned.

“Don’t look at me all _disappointed_ , like that. Mike **knew** what he was signing up for when he jumped into bed with Hero. He should learn to pick his **_friends_ ** better,” Kevin rasps when he finally gets his breath back, ignoring the way **_those eyes_** (usually so **bright** and _alive_ ) dim as they turn _**away** _ from Kevin. The scrawny (personification of fucking _sunlight_ ), naive ( **resplendent** ), sap (heart must be goddamn made of **_glass_** ) pulls ahead of Kevin, walking through the fans and disappearing though the little exit doors at the back of the gym without a word, or backwards glance.

Kevin forces himself to follow, smacking hands out of his face as the cretins try reaching out for high-fives, or handouts, or _whatever_ it is that they want from him, that he **can’t** give.

_-could give them **something** for their trouble at least-_

(nothing to **_give_** )

_-to them?-_

**_(to anyone)_ **

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry about the tiny-ness of this. I just wanted to address this particular match, I don't particularly know why. Probably mostly just because I want an excuse to have Hero show up, even if he isn't really central to the plot, and he doesn't actually do anything in the narrative. This is kinda short because this whole angle wasn't really about Team IWS, it was centered around Hero's heel turn. What actually happened is him and Quackenbush pick up the win, but Hero turns on Mike and sides with Claudio Castagnoli (who for some reason doesn't have a default tag for anything other than his WWE name, wtf) and Arik Cannon.
> 
> That is the last bit of this whole Chikara drama. We will be moving on in the next fic. Sorry if this was chapter fatigue-y for anyone.


End file.
